


Light

by autumnstwilight (sewohayami)



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: F/M, One Shot, Zelink Week 2018, mild angst i suppose, prompt, zelink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-25
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2019-03-24 00:08:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13799238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sewohayami/pseuds/autumnstwilight
Summary: The light shone, and he awakened with nothing but a stone tablet and a voice that called his name.One shot for Zelink Week 2018. Prompt is "Light (Link's Awakening)"





	Light

_...p...n y… e..._

_...op… y… ey…._

_...op...n...you...yes…_

_...en your eyes..._

Light.

In the distance there was brightness, the murmurings of a gentle voice just beyond his hearing.

_Open your eyes…_

Light.

It was cold and yet searing. His eyes opened and then squinted in pain.

_Wake up, Link..._

Slowly, the world came into focus. Above him were the twisting lines of an unfamiliar ceiling, enveloped in a blue glow.

He was noone and nothing. He was aware that the ceiling was strange, though not that he had ever seen any other for comparison. There was liquid against his body, air against his exposed skin, and a chill as the fluid began to drain. Losing buoyancy, his body settled against hard stone. His gaze moved to the walls around him, and he realized he was in a shallow basin.

He rose cautiously, a strange ache in his limbs as though they had been inactive for too long. His eyes took a moment to adjust to the gloom beyond the stone basin. The walls were covered in maze-like swirls, silent as a tomb.

There had been a voice, he was sure of it, a sweet and pleasant one. Yet there was no one here to speak. He struggled to recall the pitch, the timbre, the name it had given him. They were the lantern-light that he clung to in the darkness.

He rose to his feet, his legs heavy, numb and uncertain. The floor was cool and rough against his soles. Water- or whatever it might be- ran down his body and dripped from his hair.

The first thing he noticed was that the chamber was sealed. His instincts, though he was unaware where they came from, bristled at this. There was a fog in the interior, and more walls, with their curled and twisted patterns, loomed beyond. The room was so quiet that he could hear the rush of blood in his ears.

From a pedestal, the sole fixture in the room apart from the basin and the light above it, there was the quiet rumble of stone sliding on stone. A dark and rectangular object emblazoned with a blue and orange eye rose from the pedestal, seemingly of its own accord. He approached with caution.

_That is a Sheikah Slate. It will help guide you after your long slumber._

The voice had not abandoned him. It sounded again, from no direction in particular. Yet it was a comfort, a feeling that he was not completely alone in this place.

The eye flickered at him. As he reached out for it, the unblinking gaze seemed somehow familiar. It was a mystery, as was everything else. He took the stone tablet in his hands, and jerked in surprise when it lit up with an oddly musical tone. In the empty chamber, it seemed the loudest sound he had ever heard. He watched with curiosity as the raised section of the pedestal rotated and retreated to its original position. A grating sound to his right caught his attention, and he saw the stone gate open.

Beyond the door lay some crates, barrels and chests, all thick with dust. An inspection yielded an old, worn shirt and some trousers and boots in similar disrepair. It was clear that, wherever he was, no one else had visited for a long time. He dressed himself, struck by a disconcerting sense of isolation. Another door stood before him. He paused to listen.

_Hold the Sheikah Slate up to the pedestal. That will show you the way._

His hand moved to the stone tablet, now hanging at his hip. Sheikah Slate, the voice had called it. Water, light, stone, clothing, he had known the names of all these things. Yet the name of the stone tablet was new to him. As was his own name. He held out the stone tablet, and the eye on the back stared up at him. _We are the same, you and I,_ it seemed to say. _Lost and forgotten._ He returned the tablet to his hip.

_Link…_

The voice came again, as the second stone gate rumbled open, shedding torrents of dust. Sunlight streamed through the opening. He tried to see what lay beyond, but the glare forced him to cover his eyes.

_You are the light- our light- that must shine upon Hyrule once more._

_Now go._

He ran. Into the light and the warmth, through the sparse greenery in the cavern that was nonetheless _alive,_ and the water that splashed cold and fresh around his legs. He pulled himself up the rough stone, and let his footsteps echo on the stairway. He kept running until he had emerged from the shadows completely, and stood on the edge of a plateau. The morning sun illuminated the land before him, shining gold on the lakes and rivers, casting light and shadow through the mountains and across the sprawling fields. He stood in awe of it all.

But the voice was gone. Whoever had spoken it, wherever they had been, he could sense no trace of them now. He noticed it like a sudden chill, the absence of _her._ Somehow he knew the one who had woken him was far away, and it would be a long time before he could see the face to which the beautiful voice belonged.

He looked again into the distance, over the endless miles, all unknown to him. The mountains jutted into the sky, rivers carved their paths through the land, leaving valleys and hills in their wake. Who knew what awaited him, once he left the only place he had ever known? He grasped a sturdy tree branch in his hands, snapping off unnecessary twigs and testing the weight and strength. A castle in the distance caught his eyes.

He gave his surroundings a last look, noting the features of the landscape so that he would know from where he had come. But he had no attachment to this place. Rather, a growing energy inside him pushed him forward. As he stepped into the unknown, he thought once more of the voice and made a silent promise.

_I will find you._

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so I know this is probably the most unoriginal direction I could have gone with a prompt of “Light (Link’s Awakening)”. My excuse is that I was planning to write a study of inside-recently-woken-Link’s-head anyway and this just encouraged me to actually do it.
> 
> I think there’s a lot of directions you could go with BotW!Link just after waking, confused and frightened, childish and curious, determined and heroic, all of the above. Here, I chose to emphasize him falling back on his military training (immediately searching for exits, supplies and weapons), and attachment to Zelda’s voice, since it’s Zelink week.


End file.
